SBI
accounts for 20 percent of bank deposits in the country. This
means that
one fifth of the business of banking gets done through
SBI. Though this is
(thankfully) lower than the 36 percent share SBI
had in 1991, it is still
large enough to cause enough
discomfort.

How will the strike
impact SBI consumers?

First, cash withdrawls from bank branches are
not possible. SBI
handles about 90 percent of government salary payments.
These
employees cannot withdraw their salaries from SBI unless
arrangements
are made to do it through other banks.

About 9000
branches of SBI are shut indefinitely due to the strike and
customers are
at a loss about when they can get their money.

Second, SBI has around
6000 ATM which are also running out of cash. A
significant amount of
withdrawls takes place through them. In
2004-05 Rs 3133 crore was withdrawn
through these ATMs. Arrangements
are being made with associate banks to
allow customers to withdrawl
cash from their ATMs.

Cheques paid by
SBI customers to other agencies, for example, to pay
their electricity,
water or credit card dues will not be cleared and
payments will therefore
be delayed. It is not clear who will bear the
brunt of the late fee and
interest charges. In all probability, it will
be the customer.

How
will cheque clearing be hit?

RBI has taken over cheque clearing in the
major centres SBI was
handling. Despite this it has been reported that 10
to 15 percent of
cheque clearing activity has been hit.

How will
the strike affect foreign exchange markets?

SBI has a market share of
nearly one fourth of the foreign exchange
market. In 2004-05 SBI recorded a
total turnover of nearly Rs 3.5 lakh
crore in its foreign exchange
business. All foreign exchange business
normally taking place through SBI
will be stalled.